Political Quotes

“I want to speak about one very small part of this bill we are going to be voting on today that impacts one very large group of people in America. We talked about the FEMA budget and how we need to help resolve those problems created by disasters and reimburse towns and cities for the expenses they have lost, the debts they have incurred. But we have not heard anything about FEMA's commitment to the 1.2 million men and women in this country who are the fire and EMS personnel. Under the chairman's leadership, with the strong support of the full committee chairman, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), this past year the Congress for the first time established a grant program to support the Nation's domestic defenders. The $100 million that was allocated was requested by 30,000 fire and EMS departments across this country to the tune of $2.9 billion. We will only be able to fund a very small portion of that request. I am pleased that this bill has an additional $100 million, and I am going to ask at a later point in time, when I offer an amendment, that my colleagues and the leadership of this subcommittee support the Senate position, which is $150 million.”